James Maloney says South Sydney Rabbitohs ruled the roost no matter what the rules

Sydney Roosters five-eighth James Maloney has described his side's 28-8 loss to South Sydney in Thursday night's NRL season opener as a reality check for the defending premiers.

Despite going on to win last year's grand final after losing the opening match of the season to the Rabbitohs by the almost identical scoreline of 28-6, Maloney suggested the Roosters had been guilty of looking too far ahead as they attempt to become the first club in NRL history to win back-to-back grand finals.

After beating Super League champions Wigan in the World Club Challenge two weeks ago, the NSW playmaker said the defeat by Souths was a reminder of how hard the Roosters had to work to achieve the success they did last season.

"It's different to last year," Maloney said. "That game [on Thursday night] was a wake up call that we probably needed.

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"There has been a lot of talk about stuff that was going to happen a long way away so it brings it home and makes us realise we have got a lot of work to do. We will take some lessons out of that and start working hard."

Roosters coach Trent Robinson conceded Souths had dominated the rucks when they had the ball and in defence and said the domination of the Rabbitohs had enabled them to take better advantage of the new rules changes in force this season.

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However, Maloney said the Roosters were outplayed in almost every facet of the game.

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"I think they were just better across the board in general," he said. "I don't know whether it is the new rules, I don't think it would have mattered what rules we were playing under they were just better than us."

The Roosters only completed 68 per cent of their sets of tackles and the errors were compounded by a 12-6 penalty count in favour of Souths - continuing last season's trend in which they were the most penalised team in the NRL.

Those simple statistics highlight why the Roosters were sapped of energy in the second half but Maloney said the high number of penalties was just one area they needed to address.

"There were some silly ones we need to cut out, ones that you can't accept, but at the end of the day that is how things roll," he said. "We can just do our best and make sure we minimise them as much as possible but there are a lot more issues there that we need to fix up before we worry too much about that."

With the scores locked at 6-all early in the second half, Maloney kicked a penalty goal from close range before the Greg Inglis-inspired Rabbitohs piled on 22 unanswered points but he insisted it was still the right option.

"At the time it was probably a tight game and it put us in front but we didn't do what we needed to do afterwards to make it the right decision," Maloney said.